California is a deep-blue state, with two-thirds Democratic majorities in both houses of the legislature. And when landlords tried to repeal rent control at the ballot five years ago, they suffered a massive defeat. But that doesn't mean the legislature is pro-tenant. Every day, real estate lobbyists in Sacramento have...

Sometimes a court case is so strong that you don't need to win on all counts to get the same result. And perhaps the legal precedent you were hoping to set won't be achieved, because the justices didn't need to go that far to secure a victory. Such is the...

It is never wise to predict U.S. Supreme Court decisions on oral arguments, or else Obamacare would have been repealed. Based on the Justices' line of questioning, however, it appears that they will overrule Proposition 8 -- but on narrow grounds that will only affect California. The Justices spent a...

Today, the United States Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on Proposition 8. It's a moment the legal civil rights community had avoided for years, fearing the risks involved -- and choosing more incremental approaches, like challenging the Defense of Marriage Act (the Court will hear oral arguments on DOMA...

For well over a year, I've had this recurring nightmare that the 2012 election would be a repeat of 1996 -- when Bill Clinton won re-election by adopting Republican policies and throwing progressives under a bus, leaving us absolutely nothing to hope for. When Barack Obama caved on the...

In November, marriage equality will be back on the ballot in four states -- Minnesota, Maine, Maryland and Washington. All four are in blue states that Obama should carry, all four states have encouraging polls and in all four states we have changed the messaging to better reach swing voters....

From June 6 to June 10, I attended my sixth Netroots Nation in Providence, Rhode Island, an annual gathering of the liberal blogosphere with dozens of workshops, panel discussions and appearances by various politicians. With Republicans running Congress, the president having angered much of the left and Governor Scott Walker...

When I was an 11-year-old kid in Chicago, my fifth grade class was assigned to do a school assembly for the month of May. As my teacher brainstormed what holidays are in May, I innocently suggested May Day. "No, Paul," she replied sternly. "May Day is only celebrated in Communist...

California's new map of legislative districts offers Democrats an historic opportunity to pick up seats in November -- and win a two-thirds majority that would make Republicans irrelevant. But in a move to consolidate control at the expense of everything else, Assembly Speaker John Perez has diverted resources from competitive...

Today, I leave for Minneapolis to attend the sixth annual Netroots Nation -- where thousands of liberal bloggers, online organizers and liberal politicos gather to network, strategize and focus on what lies ahead for progressive politics. Back in 2006 at the first such conference, George Bush was still President and...

It's great to be back in San Francisco, after a three-week vacation -- where I flew to Chicago, and then drove all the way back to California via Historic Route 66. When I was a child growing up in Chicago, I learned of the great "Mother Road" that takes you...

While President Obama capitulates to right-wing Republicans by extending tax cuts for the wealthy, some Democrats in Congress are pushing what is not only good policy -- but smarter politics. Bernie Sanders in the Senate and Jan Schakowsky in the House have sponsored legislation to raise taxes on millionaires --...

In January 2008, right before the Nevada Caucus, Hillary Clinton slammed Obama for making comments to the conservative Reno Gazette Journal that appeared to praise Ronald Reagan. Specifically, Obama said Reagan "changed the trajectory of America in a way that Richard Nixon did not, and in a way that...

Much has been written about how Jane Kim beat San Francisco's "progressive machine" last week to win the District 6 Supervisor race. But a precinct analysis of the election results tells a far bigger story, and explains how she pulled it off. Just like Howard Dean's Fifty State Strategy...

The California Secretary of State's Office has assigned numbers to all the November ballot measures, so now we know that passing Proposition 25 and defeating Proposition 26 are absolutely essential. The two-thirds requirement for passing a budget has paralyzed our state every year, and Prop 25 would end the extortion...

Today, the Proposition 8 trial in San Francisco Federal Court will hear its long-awaited closing arguments -- as gay marriage advocates prepare to return to the ballot. And a new study conducted by the Haas Jr. Foundation looks at pre-election polling data from 33 states that passed anti-gay marriage...

I've been a political campaign junkie for years. And the frustrating part about this job is that after going to Election Night parties, I have to go home and write about it for readers to view the next morning. So if a particular race takes the whole night to resolve,...

The FOX TV series Glee broke new ground this week, and it's not because they had a Lady Gaga episode. As any viewer who watches the show would know, that idea was just painfully predictable. No, the highlight of the episode (which can be viewed here) was when Kurt's...

In 2006, Democrats took back control of Congress because of public outrage at George Bush and the War in Iraq. But we should remember it almost didn't happen - until August, when Ned Lamont proved that Democrats can galvanize that energy to beat an incumbent Senator in a primary....

Pride at Work's latest stunt infiltrating the Westin St. Francis is now a YouTube sensation, generating over 35,000 hits yesterday. It was featured on two local evening news shows, the progressive webzine Common...